STARRY NIGHT
Meet Night Manager star Camila Morrone, 26, whose ex Leo, 49, was mistaken for DAD… and actual stepfather is Al Pacino
The legendary Godfather star had some hilarious advice when the nervous young actress asked him for acting tips
SHE managed to tame notorious lothario Leonardo DiCaprio for five years - before he moved on to a younger model.
But now, the roles have been reversed for Camila Morrone, 26, as she’s set to replace Elizabeth Debicki, 33, opposite Tom Hiddleston, 43, in the second series of hit BBC1 show The Night Manager.
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Camila’s big break is just the latest in a long line of fortunate events for the former Victoria’s Secret model, who’s had a very charmed life - and “wears Chanel in every capacity”.
Where most nepo-babies will deny they got a foot up into the industry, Camila - whose parents are Argentine immigrant actors, Lucila Solá, 48, and Maximo Morrone - always “knew it was something she’d end up doing,” having grown up in Los Angeles, with Al Pacino, 84, as a step-dad.
The Daisy Jones & The Six actress even admits when she landed her first film role in 2018 - which she “hadn’t prepped for” - the Godfather legend was the first person she called for advice.
She also went on double dates with Leo, her mum and Al Pacino - who was in an on-off relationship with Lucila for nine years, and who Camila still refers to as her step-dad.
Camila, who boasts over five million followers on Instagram, didn't always think fame was for her and thought about a more traditional job for a long time, having watched her parents struggle to find work as she went to castings with them after school.
Her father tried to push her down this route, but her mother always encouraged her to pursue her passion for acting.
"I saw [my parents] struggle their whole lives to be financially independent actors, and seeing them go through that, I was kind of turned off to it," Camila told LA Times.
"There was so much angst around acting, and it was such a topic of conversation — never knowing where your next paycheck is going to come from. I thought: 'I'm going to go to college. I'm going to have a normal 9-to-5 job.'
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“And of course, I ended up exactly like them."
Aside from a small part in James Franco’s 2013 biopic Bukoswki about the famous writer, Camila began pursuing modelling instead at first - which earned her enough to buy some very expensive accessories.
Camila Morrone is The Night Manager's new star
"I wear Chanel in every capacity,” she told L’OFFICIEL earlier this month. “When I was 16 and got my first paycheck from modelling, I got myself a Chanel purse and I wore it to the ground and still have it, still wear it.”
By 2016, she was modelling for Victoria's Secret.
That same year, she featured on the cover of Vogue Turkey and walked the runway for Moschino.
And Camila - who has since modelled for the likes of Sephora and Chanel - quickly caught the eye of notorious Victoria’s Secret model fan Leonardo Dicaprio.
The Hollywood actor and Camila first started “hooking up” in December 2017.
While they were relatively private about their relationship to start with, they were spotted together on holiday in Aspen in January 2018, and were making out backstage at Coachella in April 2019.
Star on the rise
Meanwhile, Camila’s star was on the rise.
In 2018, she landed two film roles - one as a stoner teen in Never Goin’ Back, and the other as Bruce Willis’ daughter in Death Wish.
Camila has admitted she was stunned to have got the part in Death Wish as she’d not prepped at all.
“At the time I didn’t think there’d be a chance I’d get it because it was such a big role and such a big studio movie,” she told James Corden on The Late Late Show. “I kind of just went in thinking ‘whatever, I’m not even going to get too into my head about this.’”
I wear Chanel in every capacity. When I was 16 and got my first paycheck from modelling, I got myself a Chanel purse and I wore it to the ground
So when she got the role, she panicked and the first person she called was Al Pacino.
She went over to his house and they spent two hours running through the script.
She then asked him: “What do I do? How do I cry?”
He said: “You’re fine, just act. Just be yourself.
“If you cry, you cry, if you don’t, you don’t. Just act, react, and you’ll be fine.
“You’re 19, no one cares.”
Al’s advice worked as, the following year, Camila bagged the title role in Mickey and the Bear, in which she played a teen caring for her single veteran father.
'Ashamed of modelling'
Camila has said she purposely chose roles much less glamorous than her usual self when she first started acting.
“My intention was just to look the opposite of this image that people have of me,” she said. “Having been a model earlier in my career, it's been very hard for me to break through from that image.
“I always play roles that are not going to glamorise that side of me, and [instead] show the more raw, natural side — which is how I am in real life. It's hard for people to wrap their brain around it.”
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She also gave up modelling in 2018 to focus on her acting career, as she found doing both came with its issues.
"I felt so ashamed of my modelling history when I first got into acting, so I tried to hide that part of my life, because I didn’t want to be looked at as too sexy for a role,” she told LA Times.
“I’ve heard, ‘Oh, she’s not homey-looking,’ or ‘too voluptuous’ or — I don’t want to say sexy, because then I sound like I think of myself that way — which I don’t — but that’s often, at times, it.”
And as her acting career became more serious, it seemed things did with Leo too.
The couple made their first public appearance together at the Oscars in 2020, when Leo was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
And then they spent the entire pandemic together, isolating in Leo’s Hollywood mansion.
“He is usually very independent, spends lots of time with friends. But because of the lockdown, he mostly spent time with Morrone. He loves being with her," a source told People at the time. "Leo has spent 24/7 with Camila for months at his house."
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The couple even fostered a husky together, which Camila said was “the single best decision”.
It seemed like it was all going well for Leo and Camila.
For her 23rd birthday, Leo went all out and hired a 43-metre superyacht docked at Marina Del Rey in LA, for a Western-themed party with some famous pals in attendance, including actress Nina Dobrev.
A source told Entertainment Tonight in December 2020: "They are very in love. Camila is his dream girl.
“She’s young, sweet, simple and it’s easy because she gets along well with his family and he gets along great with hers too. They’ve known each other forever and it just works."
Age-gap criticism
However, the relationship received a lot of criticism due to their 23-year age-gap.
A woman called Neda Mazd, who adopted a dog from the couple, has even confessed she thought they were father and daughter when she went to visit them.
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“There was security guards everywhere,” she explained. “They had Teslas everywhere, Erewhon bags everywhere, it was super bougie. There was a tennis court, a full water fountain in the swimming pool.
“There's this guy with a dad bod and a cap on, he looks like he's 45-50. He was obviously trying to be inconspicuous, and I look at him, and I'm like, ‘Oh is that your dad?’ to the girl.
“And she looked at me weirdly and was like, ‘No, that's my boyfriend.’ I was like, ‘Oh.’”
Defending her relationship at the time, Camila said: “[There are] so many relationships in Hollywood — and in the history of the world — where people have large age gaps.
“I just think anyone should be able to date who they want to date.”
However, she admitted: “I probably would be curious about it too.”
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Despite this, Leo and Camila split in September 2022 - just after she’d turned 25.
While the internet went wild with the theory Leo can’t date anyone over the age of 25, looking at his dating history, a source said it was due to work commitments.
They told InTouch: “Leo and Camila have had a few breaks in the past few months. It’s a matter of deciding whether they are in it for the long haul or just going to let it die.
“With all of Leo’s girlfriends, once she became focused on work and had her own priorities, he got distant. Rather than have dramatic break-ups, they took time apart.”
Camila turned to her pals Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner following the break-up, and was spotted hanging out with them in LA, reportedly "doing fine".
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A source told PEOPLE. "She has a big group of friends that really care about her. She is moving on with her life. She is not in contact with Leo."
And it seems her career is now on the up too.